


all dressed up and ready

by rjosettes



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Cosplay, F/F, F/M, Multi, Trans Female Character, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 03:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16845910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rjosettes/pseuds/rjosettes
Summary: Her hair isn’t quite right, even though it’s just getting to be the right length for today. “I should’ve dyed it,” she frets, adjusting bobby pins in the mirror while her boyfriend pulls brown paper towels from the dispenser, wiping down his gloves. “No one’s going to know who I am and there are going to be questions and they’ll look too close and-”“Lydia.” His voice is calm and warm, stopping the flow of panic without dismissing her. “You look amazing."Lydia and Boyd meet the tiniest Winter Soldier at a convention.





	all dressed up and ready

**Author's Note:**

> Just backing up an old fic from my blog, posted three years ago for a TW Polyamory Saturday. 
> 
> The transphobia here is more of a looming worry than an actuality; no transphobia is directed at Lydia during the course of the fic.

“Thank God,” Lydia whispers to herself, the sign for the all-genders restroom a beacon of hope in the busy convention center. “I’ll be right back” she starts, but Boyd hands a phone back to the kid he’s been posing with and slips his hand to the small of her back. She holds her breath as the cross the thirty yards or so, focusing on the sound of her heels against the floor. No one stops them again, and she feels herself melt a little in relief as they make it through the door.

Her hair isn’t quite right, even though it’s just getting to be the right length for today. “I should’ve dyed it,” she frets, adjusting bobby pins in the mirror while her boyfriend pulls brown paper towels from the dispenser, wiping down his gloves. “No one’s going to know who I am and there are going to be questions and they’ll look too close and-”

“Lydia.” His voice is calm and warm, stopping the flow of panic without dismissing her. “You look amazing. Three people have asked for pictures with us. I promise you, people would recognize Peggy Carter bald. You love your hair; you’d have been upset for weeks if you dyed it.” He spares one last paper towel for a pass over the handle of his shield, which they’d so lovingly perfected to complete the costume last week. When this had still seemed like a great idea. When she couldn’t think of anything better than being a hero alongside him. “I asked you before we even bought tickets whether you wanted to be MJ instead, and you said, and I quote, ‘I would never date Peter Parker’.”

“Well, I wouldn’t,” she agrees, pouting slightly at her reflection. “Also, you’re the size of two and a half Spider-Mans, and literally no one could miss it in spandex.” He grins at her, flexing, his bicep looking even more ridiculous in his perfectly tailored costume. Their work is flawless. “I’d have made you take Isaac if you’d been anyone but Steve, and he’d wear a print tee and be done with it.” As much as she hates her eyebrows, the features in her face that can’t simply be contoured away, all of Isaac’s effort is dedicated to geeking out, and he’d be a terrible cosplay partner. “I wish I’d gone with the suit and hat, this military color scheme doesn’t suit me.”

If she’s honest with herself, her outfit is just as flawless as Boyd’s, if not more. Neat and tidy down to her flawlessly secured tie (possibly the one upside to her father’s 'be a man, son’ style of parenting), she knows that on anyone else it’d be unmistakeable and universally admired. As it is, plenty of kids have seen them and known exactly who they were screaming for a picture with, tugging on their parents’ sleeves and waving a pointing finger. Excitement twists itself to accusation in the face of Lydia’s nerves, though. The internet might lose its mind over black Steve Rogers and trans Peggy Carter tomorrow, but today is a minefield as treacherous as Halloween, or a grocery store run on a day when she can’t painstakingly assure herself that she passes. The cosplay is amazing; it’s just that people, more often than not, are assholes.

The reverberating slam of a stall door being shoved open from the inside nearly makes her jump out of her heels. In the slightly warped mirror, she sizes up the person who silently approaches the sink to carefully and methodically wash their hands. The long sleeve on their right arm is rolled up past the wrist, away from the water; the metal (or just metallic?) sleeve on their left ends at about the same spot. Boyd’s eyebrows have arched in curiosity, the corner of his mouth beginning to quirk up. The total effect is great, right down to the hair and mask concealing everything but the dark eyes that turn to meet theirs.

“Nice,” Boyd comments, looking downright huge next to the tiny Winter Soldier as they pass to dry their hands. There are a pair of leather gloves spilling out of one hip pocket, and they slide on smoothly , covering up what little bare skin they can see. Lydia thinks they’ll stalk out, silent and in character, until they reach up and pull the mask away from their face.

“Hi,” the girl says, grinning brightly at them, breathing in deep through her mouth. “You guys look amazing. Everyone always goes with the new shield, I think that one looks way cooler.” She turns her to Lydia, a faint blush on her cheeks that hadn’t been there before. “Did you do your own hair and makeup? I tried to follow a tut on YouTube, but eventually I just gave up. Maybe my mom’s hair can curl like that, but mine wouldn’t behave. Yours is perfect, though! Can I get a picture with you? I mean, um. Not in the bathroom, maybe. Back outside?”

Lydia resists the urge to bite at her lip, overly aware of the lipstick that needs reapplying but could still stain her teeth. Boyd looks to her for approval, and she nods. “Sure. Just let me…” She gestures at her face broadly. “Freshen up.”

Sturdy arms around her waist steady her while she carefully fills in her lips, quietly thanking genetics for the gift she’s been graced with there. It had been a bit of a joke in high school, the sort of thing that got pointed out when people took notice of her with Jackson back when everyone saw them as a pair of boys a little too close to be called friends. There’d been more rumors about the two of them than there’d ever been about either of them with Danny. Ultimately, Jackson had been looking for the boy that Lydia just couldn’t be – not that anyone ever found out. Boyd, Isaac, Erica, and a few other good eggs like Scott McCall are the only people from high school left on Lydia’s Facebook page. She deserves her privacy.

“She’s practically in love with you,” he tells her flatly, big hands smoothing the wrinkle in her skirt from leaning against the low counter. “This is what today’s going to be like, okay? You’re gorgeous and everyone knows it. That’s what they see. That you’re beautiful and historically accurate. We don’t have to take any more pictures after this if you don’t want, but they’re not doing it to make fun of you.” Lydia’s stomach still flips a little when he talks to her this way, the man of so few words. He knows she needs to hear this from him because she’s scared to ask for the same validation from anyone else. She doesn’t want to feel like she needs it. With him, well. She already knows she needs him. That they need one another.

When they step out of the bathroom again, slightly more put together, they nearly crash into the poor girl waiting for them just outside. “I’m Kira,” she says quickly, even as she’s still regaining her balance with a hand against Boyd’s arm. “Wow,” she mouths, perfectly clear to read despite the lack of sound. “I realized I didn’t say, in there. I’m Kira.”

“Lydia. And this is Vernon.”

“Boyd,” he corrects. “Vernon’s for my mother and my girlfriend.”

Kira’s smile reappears, absurdly soft compared to the severe clothes and the makeup around her eyes. “Maybe I’ll stick with Cap for now.”


End file.
